Sports

Cañon City Tigers soccer team on 5-match win streak entering big week

Freshman Kiley O'Rourke and the Cañon City Tigers will take on the Widefield Gladiators at 6:30 p.m. today at Citizens' Stadium. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

All right, don't everybody start talking about it at once, but the Tigers soccer team — the one that started the season with less-than-stellar expectations — is tied for first place in its league.

The team only has two seniors and had tons of voids to fill from last year's squad. With only three matches left in the regular season, Tigers coach Pat Callahan seems to have figured it out.

"We're doing well. We had a really good week last week. We're getting better each week," Callahan said Monday. "With such a new team, you've got some players who have never played with each other before from different age groups. I'm sure (senior) Whitney (Boehm's) never played with these freshmen, and they're starting to gel together and getting used to each other."

Tammi Chapman throws in the ball during the Cañon City Tigers' soccer match against the Mesa Ridge Grizzlies on Tuesday at Citizens' Stadium. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

The team has a strong junior class and sophomores and freshmen making impacts. Six underclassmen have scored a goal or recorded an assist. Four of the team's top six goal scorers are 10th-graders or less: Macy French (freshman, seven goals), Lisa Miller (sophomore, four goals), Kaylee Jennings (freshman, four goals), and Kiley O'Rourke (freshman, three goals). Junior Lily Nordell has four goals this year, and Boehm has three.

"It's nice to see these underclassmen join in the fun of getting the goals and assists," Callahan said. "That's been nice to see.

"They're very athletic and I think they're becoming hungry for a goal or to get in the box and try to get a shot on frame or follow a shot."

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The longtime head coach of the boys and girls soccer programs, Callahan said he's coached teams where one player scores the majority of the goals, but when they play against a strong team, often the opposing team has good enough defenders to stop that scorer.

"But these guys," he said, "it seems it's just coming from everywhere. It's really neat to see, they've all contributed."

Junior goalkeeper Lizzy McCalla has made several spectacular saves this year and has sparked offense with them, Callahan said. She even recorded an assist last week off a long kick.

Cañon City enters today's game against Widefield with a 6-3 overall mark and is 4-0 in the Colorado Springs Metro League. The Gladiators, losers of three in a row, are 1-7 overall and 1-3 in league. They've also had four losses via 10-0 mercy rules.

A win today and the Tigers guarantee themselves a top-two finish in the CSML with only two matches to play.

No matter what happens today, the Tigers will play The Classical Academy Titans at home Friday and first place in the league will be on the line. Both teams are 4-0 entering Tuesday and the winner will hold the tiebreaker over the other with only one match remaining in the regular season. The Titans are 6-1-2 overall and ranked sixth in the state.

TCA and Cañon City have separated themselves from the other teams in the league. Those teams are a combined 8-39 overall and 0-23 in non-league matches.

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